SOUTH BEND Â? Poor staffing choices by the Federal Aviation Administration contributed to two fatal plane crashes in Indiana this year, including one near Bloomington that killed a 24-year-old Adams High School graduate, air traffic controllers say. The FAA disputes the claim.

Representatives from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association say the FAA has reduced staffing at Terre Haute, where controllers should have been guiding the aircraft, thus shifting control to Indianapolis.

Â?The controllers at Indy Center are among the best and most dedicated in the world,Â? Dave OÂ?Malley, a NATCA facility representative at Indy Center, said in a statement. Â?However, we donÂ?t have the radar accuracy, training, or experience with local approach operations that the controllers at Terre Haute have.

But FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro took issue with the NATCA claims, saying that controllers in Indianapolis took over the Terre Haute center's overnight functions earlier this year because of traffic levels, not insufficient staffing.

Terre Haute handled an average of just two aircraft per night, he said.

Â?From our point of view, that could easily and safely be handled by controllers in the Indy Center,Â? he said. Â?You staff to traffic.Â?

One of the crashes the NATCA cited was the April 20 accident that killed Adams High School graduate Georgina Joshi and four other members of the Indiana University School of Music.

Joshi was piloting the small when it went down late on a misty night, about a half-mile short of a runway.